Cotillion

‘Hannah thought of it. I ain’t clever: she is. But she don’t bother me. Like to marry her,’ he said wistfully.

It appeared to Miss Charing that there would be little likelihood of his being permitted to do so. Only one circumstance could render such a match tolerable in Lady Dolphinton’s eyes. She put a tentative question, and received in answer one of his melancholy headshakes.

‘No. No fortune,’ he said.

‘Oh, dear!’ she said, thinking that it all seemed rather hopeless.

‘I don’t want a fortune. I want horses. Like to go and live at Dolphinton and breed horses.’

‘To Ireland! Well, and so you should! Does Hannah say that too?’

‘Yes. She don’t want to live in London either.’

‘I wish I could meet her!’

He looked surprised, but pleased. ‘You do? Wish you could meet Hannah?’

‘Yes, but if she lives in Cheltenham—’

‘Don’t live in Cheltenham. Lives in Keppel Street. Not a good address. Mama wouldn’t like it. Full of Cits and lawyers. Don’t like it much myself. But I go there,’ said Dolphinton, in a burst of confidence. ‘Mama thinks I go to Boodle’s. That’s a hoax too.’

It seemed to Kitty that this particular hoax was one which could only lead to disaster. She almost shuddered to think of what Dolphinton’s fate would be if some chance discovered the deception to his parent. ‘Dolph, why should you not take me to visit Miss Plymstock?’ she asked. ‘I wish very much to help you, but first I do think I should see her, because—well, I think I should!’

‘Couldn’t. Finglass would tell Mama.’

‘And so he may, for I have thought of an excellent scheme! Now, listen carefully, Dolph! When we go back to the carriage, I shall ask you where is Keppel Street. I think perhaps you should say you don’t know—hoaxing Finglass, you see.’

‘I should like to do that,’ said his lordship, showing faint animation.

‘Of course you would! Then you will ask Finglass if he knows. And I shall say that I have a friend living there—what is the number of Miss Plymstock’s house, Dolph?’

‘Seventeen,’ he answered, watching her with rapt attention.

‘Good! I will remember. I shall ask if you would object to it if I paid her a visit.’

Lord Dolphinton, much stirred, had a flash of genius. ‘I’ll say I don’t object, and we’ll go there!’

‘Exactly so! Can you keep that in your head, do you think?’

He requested her to repeat it all, and when she had done so said that he could remember it very well. She did not feel hopeful, but it soon appeared that he had not been making an idle boast when he had told his cousins that he could remember things that were said to him two or three times. All passed precisely as had been planned, and it was not long before Miss Charing was seated in a drawing-room in Keppel Street, waiting for the man-servant to bring Miss Plymstock to her. While she waited, she took stock of her surroundings. The house was respectable; the room in which she sat was furnished with propriety, if not with elegance; and she could perceive no signs of vulgarity, such as would render an alliance with Miss Plymstock quite ineligible. Then the door opened, and Miss Plymstock stood before her.

Miss Charing suffered a severe shock, and as she put out her hand realized that Dolphinton must have formed a greater passion than she had supposed to be at all possible. Only a man in love could have described Miss Plymstock as pretty. She was a rather stout young woman of about his own age, with sandy hair and lashes, and a florid complexion. While there was nothing repulsive in her appearance, few persons would have gone so far as to have said that she was even passably good-looking. Upon Dolphinton’s performing the introduction, which he did as soon as he had been prodded by Kitty, she shook Kitty’s hand heartily, and said in a blunt but by no means ungenteel voice: ‘How do you do? I’m very happy to make your acquaintance, for I know of you from Foster here, and I can tell he likes you.’

She then kissed his lordship’s cheek, and patted him in a motherly way, told him to sit down and be comfortable, and turned again to Kitty. ‘He has told you about us, I don’t doubt, and I can see you’ve not come here to tell me our marriage would be unsuitable. Well, I’m sure there’s no need for anyone to do so, for I’m no fool, and I know it. But I mean to marry him, for all that, only how to bring it about is more than I can see.’

Dolphinton, who had been watching her with an expression of dog-like devotion, sighed heavily.

‘But his Mama cannot prevent the marriage, if he is set upon it!’ Kitty said. ‘Dolph, you are twenty-seven yeas old! Could you not be resolute?’

He looked frightened, and began to stammer. Miss Plymstock took his hand, and sat patting it. ‘Don’t be in a taking, Foster!’ she said kindly. ‘Your Mama shan’t know of it until I have you safe, and so I promise you.’

The servant came in just then with a tray, which he set on one of the tables. Miss Plymstock rose, and said: ‘Now, you shall have a glass of the Madeira wine you like, and sit drinking it by the fire, while I take Miss Charing to my bedchamber. Sister’s out, so no one will come in to disturb you, and if your Mama should ask you about your visit here you may say that Miss Charing and I went off together and left you alone, and she will be satisfied.’

Kitty, feeling that in her own way Miss Plymstock was quite as masterful as Lady Dolphinton, meekly went with her up two pairs of stairs to her bedroom at the back of the house.

‘You’ll excuse my bringing you here,’ stated Hannah, putting forward a chair for her. ‘I was wishful to talk to you, and I don’t care to speak out before Foster, because it makes him nervous, poor fellow!’

‘If only one could prevail upon him to be firm with that odious woman!’ Kitty exclaimed. ‘I own, I am a little afraid of her myself, but there is nothing she can do to him, after all!’